Jeremy Cronin
Jeremy Patrick Cronin is a South African writer, author, and noted poet. A longtime activist in politics, Cronin is a member of the South African Communist Party and a former member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress. He served as the South African Deputy Minister of Public Works from 2012 until his retirement in 2019.
Early life
Cronin was brought up in a White middle-class Roman Catholic family in Rondebosch in Cape Town, South Africa. During adolescence, he considered the idea of entering the priesthood. After a year's military service, when he was conscripted in the South African Navy, Cronin won a bursary to study at the University of Cape Town in 1968; there he became a member of the Radical Student Society and was subsequently recruited into then-banned South African Communist Party.In the early 1970s, Cronin studied for his Master's degree in Philosophy in France and returned to South Africa, where he began lecturing in the Philosophy department at the University of Cape Town.
Activism and imprisonment
Cronin's work in the propaganda unit of the SACP brought him to the attention of the South African Bureau of State Security; he was arrested on charges under the Terrorism and Internal Security Acts and tried in the Cape Town Supreme Court in September 1976, along with David Rabkin and his wife Sue. The charges included conspiring with members of the African National Congress and the SACP, and preparing and distributing pamphlets on these organisations' behalf. Cronin pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. He served his time in Pretoria Local, or Pretoria Prison, which was part of the Pretoria Central Prison complex, along with Denis Goldberg, Raymond Suttner and others. He participated in the planning of a daring escape in 1979 by Tim Jenkin, Stephen Lee and Alex Moumbaris. His wife Anne Marie died of a brain tumour during his imprisonment.Poetry
Cronin's first book of poetry, Inside, was published in 1984 following his release from prison. Subsequent volumes include Even the Dead and Inside and Out. His most recent collection, More Than A Casual Contact, was published in 2006. Among his best known poems is "Motho Ke Motho Ka Batho Babang", whose title is taken from the Sotho aphorism "A person is a person because of other people".Poetry collections
- Inside
- Even the Dead: Poems, Parables and a Jeremiad
- Inside and Out
- ''More than a Casual Contact''
Politics
Political writings
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